(Port-au-Prince) The Haitian capital Port-au-Prince continues to sink into gang-related violence, with the United States announcing on Sunday that it had evacuated some of its embassy staff and reinforced the teams responsible for its security .
Read “Five keys to better understanding the crisis in Haiti”
“Increased gang violence in the vicinity of the U.S. Embassy and airport has led the State Department to make arrangements to allow the departure of other embassy personnel” , the embassy said on Sunday on X.
The operation, led by the American army, took place during the night from Saturday to Sunday by helicopter, according to residents of the neighborhood.
“This airlift of personnel to and from the embassy is part of our planned procedures to enhance embassy security,” the US military said in a statement on Sunday.
The United States embassy in Port-au-Prince remains open, she said.
The capital of Haiti, scene of clashes between police and armed gangs, is “a city in a state of siege”, warned Philippe Branchat, the head for Haiti of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), on Saturday.
“The residents of the capital live locked up, they have nowhere to go,” he describes.
The criminal gangs, who control most of the capital as well as the roads leading to the rest of the territory, have been attacking police stations, prisons and courts for several days, in the absence of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, whose release they are demanding. resignation just like part of the population.
PHOTO SIMON MAINA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Prime Minister Ariel Henry is stuck outside the country.
According to the latest news, he is stranded in the American territory of Puerto Rico after a trip abroad.
Faced with the violence, dozens of residents took over the premises of a public administration in Port-au-Prince on Saturday, hoping to find refuge there, according to an AFP correspondent.
“Since last night we haven’t been able to sleep. We are fleeing, me with my personal belongings placed on my head, without knowing where to go,” Filienne Setoute, a contract civil servant, who had to leave her house, told AFP.
“Today, it is not our neighbors in the Dominican Republic who are fighting against Haiti, but it is Haitians, of the same blood, who are fighting among themselves,” she lamented.
Friday evening, armed men attacked the national presidential palace and a police station in Port-au-Prince, the general coordinator of the National Union of Haitian Police Officers (SYNAPOHA) confirmed to AFP. Several attackers were killed, according to the same source.
Insecurity
“Insecurity is growing nationally: there is violence in Artibonite [région au nord-ouest de la capitale, NRLR]blockages in Cap Haïtien (North), and fuel shortages in the south,” notes Philippe Branchat.
According to the IOM, 362,000 people — more than half of whom are children — are currently displaced in Haiti, a figure that has jumped 15% since the start of the year.
PHOTO RALPH TEDY EROL, REUTERS
People flee violence around their homes with their belongings on March 9 in Port-au-Prince.
The Haitian government has declared a state of emergency in the West department which includes Port-au-Prince, as well as a nighttime curfew, difficult to enforce by already overwhelmed law enforcement agencies.
Fabiola Sanon, a resident of Port-au-Prince, told AFP how her husband, James, 32, was killed during the recent violence.
“James has never been in conflict with anyone. He is a simple cigarette seller,” she confided after finding him “lying in the street.”
“We lost all our property, everything we owned. We are losing our families,” Reginald Bristol, homeless since the attack by armed gangs, told AFP.
Faced with this outbreak of violence, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) invited representatives of the United States, France, Canada and the UN to an emergency meeting on Monday in Jamaica.
The UN Security Council agreed months ago to send a multinational peace mission led by Nairobi, but its deployment is sorely overdue.
Administrations and schools are closed in Port-au-Prince, the airport and the port are no longer operating.
Access to care is severely compromised, with “hospitals which have been attacked by gangs and which have had to evacuate medical staff and patients, including newborns”, according to the IOM.
The director general of the National Port Authority (APN), Jocelin Villier, reported looting at the port.
Hunger
The NGO Mercy Corps has warned of the risks for the supply of the population of the poorest country in the Americas.
“With the closure of the international airport, the little aid currently provided to Haiti may no longer arrive,” the NGO warned Thursday. And “if we can no longer access these containers, Haiti will soon be hungry.”